COMING EVENTS

Tuesday 8 May Kindy Parent Meeting

Wednesday 9 May Open Afternoon

Thursday 10 May Rose Cottage Parent Meeting

Friday 11 May Class 3 Lunch Bar

Tuesday 15 May C4 Parent Meeting

Wednesday 16 May Walking Bus Meeting

Thursday 17 May C1 Parent Meeting

Friday 18 May Pink Shirt Day

FRIDAY FLYER 4 May 2018

Newsletter 15

Dear parents and caregivers

It has been a real honour to be appointed as the interim principal

of Michael Park School. All in Auckland education know of this

unique school but it was humbling to drive through the gates on

Monday morning and to observe the wonderful children come

back to school on such a beautiful autumn morning.

We have been blessed this week with perfect weather which has

allowed the whole school to play enthusiastically in the wonderful

grounds that are such a feature of the school. Indeed in writing this

I can see the lower school students running so freely. It’s what

education surely is about.

I also have enjoyed getting to know almost all the staff and it was a

special privilege to be part of the College of Teachers meeting

yesterday evening to learn from people such as Janette Feenstra

and Jane Patterson about the Steiner philosophy, and to have a

fascinating discussion on the views of Steiner himself was a treat.

Yesterday was also special in that we farewelled our long-serving

staff member Kerstin Mahr

in a remarkable assembly

of the whole school.

The highlight for me was

the coming together of the

boys and girls around

Kerstin and farewelling her

spontaneously in song.

I look forward to my next

few weeks with you and

hopefully making some

contribution.

Kind regards

Steve Cole

Interim Principal

PARKING ON THE STREET

A reminder to please not stop your vehicle on yellow lines or

obstruct residents’ driveways when parking outside the school at

any time. We have received multiple complaints from our

neighbours and our community about people parking on yellow

lines and obstructing driveways. Please note that it is an offense to

wait on yellow lines or to park less than one metre from a

driveway and residents are within their rights to phone the council

or a towing company!

Photos of offending vehicles have been provided to us but we do

not wish to name and shame just yet!

HIGH SCHOOL NEWS

Kia ora parents and caregivers

A warm welcome back to all our students and families, as the first

week of term 2 draws to a close.

Class 10 and the end of their academic year

After finalizing consultation with the College of Teachers and the

Board of Trustees, our school has decided that Class 10 will finish

their academic year on the 5th of December. After Class 10 Play

finishes on Thursday the 29th of November, Class 10 will come in

on Friday 30th of November for packing down and debriefing. On

Monday 3rd of December class 10 will have a rest day where they

will stay at home. They return for Prize Giving on the 4th of

December and Graduation on the 5th of December. This does

mean that Class 10 will not be back for Craft week, which will now

be dedicated to Class 8 and 9.

This decision has been taken for 4 main reasons. First, Class 10

have finished their programme of study for their NZCSE (New

Zealand Certificate of Secondary Education). Secondly, the Play is a

major effort and the students deserve a break. Thirdly, it gives

students the opportunity to find summer work; year 11 students in

other schools are also job hunting at that time. Fourthly, it will free

up some precious time for High School teachers to collaborate and

plan for the next academic year. We are committed to ensuring all

High School teachers have good opportunities to build their

capacity to be excellent Steiner teachers and this will manifest

itself in the pedagogical and curricular planning by our teachers.

This year, as one of a number of complementary initiatives, all High

School teachers—from novices to experts—will be working with

Neil Boland from AUT on deepening our knowledge and practice of

Steiner pedagogy and curriculum.

Kind regards

Adam Driver

High School Principal

COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD

We are hoping to find a kindergarten parent (preferably with a

child heading into class 1 next year), who might live in the Mt

Wellington area and is able to drop a child home some

afternoons each week to mum. Our family is expecting a new

baby soon and hoping to take some of the pressure of mum for a

term, possibly longer if it suits. Small payment of $10 a day. If

you’re interested please call Nick on 021662002

House for Sale https://www.barfoot.co.nz/754586

Contact the editor fridayflyer@michaelpark.school.nz

Guideline 150 characters please. Deadline Thursday lunchtime.

RSST UPDATE

Great news - Mary Miller has come back from early retirement and

re-joined the RSST. For those of you that don’t know Mary she was

a RSST trustee from 2013-2015 and previously worked on projects

including the visioning project, redeveloping the website, the

rebrand of MPS brand and developing literature for the fundraising

handbook for which a link can be found here. We are excited to

have her back.

We have started the first part of the year looking at the 2018

Kindergarten Annual Plan. We are fortunate and thankful to have

the expertise of Karen Affleck in keeping the RSST informed about

the operations of the kindergarten and the responsibilities of the

RSST as the kindergarten Licensee. Karen has also highlighted our

core tasks and responsibilities as Kindergarten Licensee which

include (but are not limited to) the long-term health, sustainability

and financial resilience of the kindergarten, review and updating of

our vision for the kindergarten for the future and being the

guardians of the special character. Thank you Karen for your time

and expertise.

The RSST is also underway with reaching out to our Alumni

community. Over the next couple of months we hope to connect

with old staff, pupils, care givers and parents and invite them to

come join us for the MPS 40th birthday celebrations happening

sometime in September. The specific details are yet to be confirm

but as soon as those are locked in we will let the community know.

To help connect with the Alumni and gather details of people who

might be interested a little microsite has been created for Alumni

to sign up to. We are excited about this project as it’s been in the

pipeline for a while now and it’s great to see it finally come to

fruition. Full details coming soon…

Thanks, The RSST - Melanie, Rochana, Miles, Nadine, Suzanne,

Mary, Craig

LOWER & MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Dear Parents/Whanau/Caregivers

The following events are occurring this term in the Lower and

Middle School:

9 May Open Afternoon

11 May Auckland Transport School Gate Drive (see the Road

Safety Week write up in this week’s flyer)

16 May Auckland Transport meeting for parents – Walking

School bus initiative 3.15 p.m. in the staffroom

14 – 18 May Bully Free NZ week – linked to Pink Shirt Day

18 May Pink Shirt Day (please send a gold coin donation with

your child) they can wear as much pink as possible!

21 May Whitsun festival in school

4 June Queen’s Birthday – no school on that day

8 June World Vision Famine weekend (details to follow)

15 June School Lantern Festival

15 June Girls Chess tournament

19 June Parent Teacher interviews – further details to follow

20 June Open Day

25 June Spiral Festival

26 June Parent Teacher interviews – further details to follow

29 June Pyjama Day – Sausage Sizzle – children to wear their

pyjamas – gold coin donation (all proceeds to help the

people of Sudan – further details to follow from Cathy)

2 – 3 July Lumino Dental van in school

6 July Last school day of Term 2.

Class 5 are once

again helping at

the CCS Disability

Garden in Royal

Oak.

We go each

Thursday morning

and assist in

weeding,

composting and

planting. We also

feed the chickens

and help disabled

youth who are

also working in the

garden.

Each Thursday

afternoon we visit Mercy Parklands Hospital to read to the elderly

residents and engage in conversations with our near neighbours. The

students in Class 5 are all enjoying their ‘service’ year. We are very

proud of their efforts and ability to interact with a diverse range of

people.

Donna Bainbridge

Deputy Principal Lower and Middle School

Do you enjoy working with wood? Do want to get involved in our community in a practical way?

If so, come along to the Wood Group and help us make things to sell to raise money for the school at the Summer Fair.

We meet in the woodwork room (above the tennis courts) each Monday from 6:30pm to 8:30pm starting next week 7th May

*note the day and time change from last year.

All parents are welcome (we are not allowed children, sorry) and no experience is necessary.

For more information contact Doug Cross

021 455 831

douglascross@gmail.com

Dear Parents/Whanau/

Caregivers

Next week is the National Road

Safety Week. We as a school

are planning to highlight the

need for our children to re-

main vigilant when crossing

the road and to use the desig-

nated crossings at all times.

We also wish to encourage

parents to be very cautious

when driving and to switch off

their cell phones.

Last year we did have 3 regular cycling and walking school buses which greatly assisted in reducing the number of cars coming into school

each morning and afternoon. However, these have not been able to continue due to a variety of reasons. We now have a new group of

Auckland Transport Leaders from Class 6 who will be assisting me in promoting our Walking School Buses.

If you as a parent are able to lead a bus then please contact me. Auckland Transport are coming into school next Friday 11th May at 8

a.m. to run a ‘school gate drive’ to try and explain to parents the need to encourage your child to walk up Amy Street to school ( as part

of a parent run Walking school bus) rather than being transported.

I am organizing a Parent meeting on the 16th May in the staff room at 3.15p.m. A representative from Auckland Transport will host the

meeting and will explain about the ‘Walking School Bus’ our intention as a school is to help reduce traffic at the school gate and Auckland

wide. I am looking forward to meeting as many parents as possible after school on the 16th May.

Yours

Donna Bainbridge

Deputy Principal Lower and Middle School

LUNCH BAR - NEW MENU

The school lunch bar has a new Term 2 menu available.

As usual, we are offering a discount for whole term

pre-orders.

Orders for the whole of term 2 are due by

9pm Saturday 5th May

Orders for any week are due the previous Thursday at 9pm

Whenever possible, we are using organic products and this

includes many vegetables. Akiko also has organic fruit and

vegetables for sale at the lunch bar!

Apple (pink lady) $3.10 /kg

Banana $3.70 /kg

Brown onion $7.80 /kg

Potato (agria) $2.00 /kg

Kumara (red) $8.40 /kg

Akiko can also order Ceres product or share organic flour,

biodynamic flour, tamari soy sauce, etc.

For more details, please visit our website

www.gohanyasan.com

We are looking forward to seeing you at the lunch bar.

We’ve joined the Pink Shirt Day movement! Michael Park School has joined the Pink Shirt Day movement to Speak Up, Stand Together and Stop Bullying! On Friday, 18 May we’re go-ing pink to show our commitment to creating a school environment that is safe, welcoming and inclusive of all students. New Zealand has some of the highest rates of bullying in schools in the world but there’s no room for it here at Michael Park School. We’ll be celebrating Pink Shirt Day by children wearing pink on the 18th May. Please can you bring a gold coin donation then we can do-nate this to the event. About Pink Shirt Day Pink Shirt Day is a national anti-bullying campaign led by the Mental Health Foundation. Pink Shirt Day aims to reduce bullying in schools by celebrating diversity in all its forms and supporting schools to be safe, supportive, welcoming and inclusive of all students. Pink Shirt Day began in Canada in 2007 when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying after a new Year 10 student was harassed and threatened for wearing pink. Why reduce bullying? By taking bullying seriously and working towards a school culture that supports and celebrates the diversity of all students, young people can feel safe and supported, and flourish at school. Many studies show that young people who are bullied are more likely to experience mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety and even suicidal thoughts. This can impact their learning, relationships and their ability to feel good about who they are, leading to ongoing poor mental health and wellbeing. What is bullying?

It isn’t uncommon to hear someone say something insensitive or mean to someone else. In fact, probably all of us have said or done something that wasn’t very nice to someone else, in a moment of anger or frustration. And although such comments or actions are not okay, bullying has some specific features that make it much more serious and harmful. Bullying is:

Deliberate – harming another person intentionally Involves a misuse of power in a relationship Not a one-off – it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time Involves behaviour that can cause harm – it is not a normal part of growing up.

Bullying can be:

Physical – hitting, tripping up Verbal – insults, threats Social – spreading gossip or excluding people. Cyberbullying is bullying online, via the internet, mobile phones and social media. It’s a

common form of bullying, especially amongst young people. While all young people can be the target of bullying, some groups or individuals experience more bullying than others. These are often young people that are perceived as different in some way from the mainstream “majority culture” of the school and can be targeted as a result. For more information on what our school is doing to prevent bullying and celebrate diversity, including out bullying prevention policy – see Donna Bainbridge D.P. Lower and Middle School.

Dear Parents,

Playing chess in school helps students achieve many learning outcomes faster and more

effectively. Put simply, chess makes kids smarter.

Chess enables all students to shine and develop intellectually in a way they really enjoy.

Playing chess develops self-confidence, concentration and problem-solving skills.

We are pleased to continue the Chess Coaching Programme at our school and look

forward to bringing the excitement, competition and educational benefits of chess to your

children.

Chess Power has been educating Chess in

many schools in Auckland and across New

Zealand. Our coaches are all professionally

trained and accredited and our support

systems are world class.

What happens in a Chess Power Coaching Programme?

Grow Kids Minds™ !!

Improve concentration and focus

Develop important life skills – fair play and decision making

Tactical & Strategic thinking

Prepare for Chess Tournaments against other schools

Develop a love of chess, of learning and of thinking

Play Chess Online safely and for free

Each session starts with a formal lesson; all players will learn a new strategy,

idea or skill each week. Then they put those skills into practice with activities

and games. All games are monitored and supervised by the coach who provides

individual feedback along the way.

Throughout the programme, we reward kids that do well and encourage and

support kids that are struggling. At completion of the programme we recognise

each child with a certificate based on their performance.

Q: Where can I learn more?

A: Visit our website, www.chesspower.co.nz and click Parents Centre

Sessions will be held on Fridays from 1:00pm to 2:00pm in both the Eurythmy Hall for beginners and the

Library for experienced students starting Friday 4 May 2018. The last session will be held on Friday 6 July 2018.

This is a full 10-week program. The fee is $100 for the term per student.

If your child would like to be part of this for Term 2 please visit our website:

www.chesspower.co.nz/class-registration

It is easy to register. Just choose your school/group and fill out the online form. A payment link will be available to

you on the form. Payment can be made online by bank transfer or credit card via PayPal.

CLASS DETAILS

REGISTRATION